Quotes from Antichrista

Amélie Nothomb ·  128 pages

Rating: (4.7K votes)


“Cei care cred că a citi înseamnă o fugă de realitate se situează la polul opus adevărului: a citi înseamnă a te plasa în prezenţa realului în starea sa cea mai concentrată - ceea ce, în mod bizar, este mai puţin îngrozitor decît să ai de-a face cu permanentele lui diluări.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“Нещастието си има и добрите страни: вкъщи вече разполагах със стаята си и с правото да чета. Никога не бях чела толкова, колкото в този период: поглъщах книгите както за да компенсирам дългото нечетене, така и за да мога да посрещна приближаващата криза. Тези, които смятат, че четенето е бягство, са много далеч от истината: да четеш, означава да се сблъскаш с реалността в най-концентрирания й вид, което, колкото и да е странно, е по-малко ужасяващо от това да си имаш работа с размитите й форми.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“Quanto a me, le storie di vittime e carnefici mi irritavano oltre misura. Forse per questa ragione non avevo mai avuto un amico o un'amica: avevo visto troppe volte, al liceo e altrove, il nobile nome dell'amicizia accostato a oscure schiavitù inaccettabili, a sistemici dispositivi di umiliazione, a nauseanti sottomissioni, fino a comportamenti da capro espiatorio.
Avevo dell'amicizia una visione sublime: se non era alla Oreste e Pilade, Achille e Patroclo, Montaigne e La Boétie, perché tu sei proprio tu, e io sono proprio io, allora non la volevo. Se lasciava spazio alla minima bassezza, alla minima rivalità, all'ombra di un' invidia, all'ombra di un'ombra, la respingevo a pedate.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“That was what university was: thinking you were going to open yourself up to a universe, and meeting nobody.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“I had always been alone and wouldn't have minded if it had been a matter of choice. It never had been. I dreamed of being integrated, if only to give myself the luxury of subsequently disintegrating.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista



“I had this notion of passionate love: if it ever happened to me, I wouldn't be able to imagine a moment's separation. What could you bear to have between the loved one and yourself, apart from the blade of a sword?”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“If I had been deceived, it was because, for a moment, I had loved. 'I am one of those who love, not those who hate,' declares Sophocles' Antigone. No one has ever said anything more beautiful.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“Încă de mică pierdusem şirul fetiţelor cărora le oferisem inima mea şi care nu o voiseră.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


“In actual fact, creatures like Sabine and myself were the guilty ones: rather than approaching their kin and comforting one another, they loved beyond their means - they needed individuals a thousand miles from their own complexes, they needed Christas, radiant and seductive personalities. And then they were astonished that their friendships turned out badly, as though anything like that could possibly work, a panther with a mouse, a shark with a sardine.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista


About the author

Amélie Nothomb
Born place: in Etterbeek, Belgium
Born date July 9, 1966
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“I sucked on a blade of grass and watched the millwheel turn. I was lying on my stomach on the stream's opposite bank, my head propped in my hands. There was a tiny rainbow in the mist above the froth and boil at the foot of the waterfall, and an occasional droplet found its way to me. The steady splashing and the sound of the wheel drowned out all other noises in the wood. The mill was deserted today, and I contemplated it because I had not seen its like in ages. Watching the wheel and listening to the water were more than just relaxing. It was somewhat hypnotic. …
My head nodding with each creak of the wheel, I forced everything else from my mind and set about remembering the necessary texture of the sand, its coloration, the temperature, the winds, the touch of salt in the air, the clouds...
I slept then and I dreamed, but not of the place that I sought.
I regarded a big roulette wheel, and we were all of us on it-my brothers, my sisters, myself, and others whom I knew or had known-rising and falling, each with his allotted section. We were all shouting for it to stop for us and wailing as we passed the top and headed down once more. The wheel had begun to slow and I was on the rise. A fair-haired youth hung upside down before me, shouting pleas and warnings that were drowned in the cacophony of voices. His face darkened, writhed, became a horrible thing to behold, and I slashed at the cord that bound his ankle and he fell from sight. The wheel slowed even more as I neared the top, and I saw Lorraine then. She was gesturing, beckoning frantically, and calling my name. I leaned toward her, seeing her clearly, wanting her, wanting to help her. But as the wheel continued its turning she passed from my sight. “Corwin!”
I tried to ignore her cry, for I was almost to the top. It came again, but I tensed myself and prepared to spring upward. If it did not stop for me, I was going to try gimmicking the damned thing, even though falling off would mean my total ruin. I readied myself for the leap. Another click... “Corwin!”
It receded, returned, faded, and I was looking toward the water wheel again with my name echoing in my ears and mingling, merging, fading into the sound of the stream.

It plunged for over a thousand feet: a mighty cataract that smote the gray river like an anvil. The currents were rapid and strong, bearing bubbles and flecks of foam a great distance before they finally dissolved. Across from us, perhaps half a mile distant, partly screened by rainbow and mist, like an island slapped by a Titan, a gigantic wheel slowly rotated, ponderous and gleaming. High overhead, enormous birds rode like drifting crucifixes the currents of the air.
We stood there for a fairly long while. Conversation was impossible, which was just as well. After a time, when she turned from it to look at me, narrow-eyed, speculative, I nodded and gestured with my eyes toward the wood. Turning then, we made our way back in the direction from which we had come.
Our return was the same process in reverse, and I managed it with greater ease. When conversation became possible once more, Dara still kept her silence, apparently realizing by then that I was a part of the process of change going on around us.
It was not until we stood beside our own stream once more, watching the small mill wheel in its turning, that she spoke.”
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